by Jason Letts
“First we need to find some things, sulfur and potassium nitrate. Both can be found in crystalline form along the inside of cave walls, so we’ll have to search for some as we’re passing through the mountains on our way home. We’ll build something so magnificent that it will usher in a peace everlasting.”
“What are you making now?” Roselyn asked, curious.
“Explosives,” Mira answered.
“Explosives? What happened to stopping the cycle of violence and showing people the way to a peaceful life?” Vern asked.
“Trust me. They’ll be beautiful,” she mused.
Chapter 15: The Eradication of Corey Outpost
As they combed the mountains for caves containing Mira’s minerals, it became obvious what they would find when they descended the last slope and walked the final stretch to their hometown. Not a sound or signal came to them from beyond the mountain chain’s western side. Not screams of pain or cries for help, not a hint of smoke or a tremor in the ground, nothing at all gave them any reason to believe a quaint, peaceful town waited just over the ridge.
They distracted themselves by focusing on the mineral search. Anything that would put off learning what cruel fate had befallen their town allowed them to pretend their families were alive and well.
Before long, they stumbled upon caves not too far from Dustfalls, beside the giant mountain of sand, and Mira scraped the crystal chunks of sulfur and potassium nitrate into bags. Now nothing stopped them from pushing on and reaching their dreaded destination.
Coming to the last bend that shielded the valley from view, they stood in its shadow feeling sick to their stomachs and on the verge of tears. Some squeezed their eyes closed, trying to block out the painful reality in whatever way they could. Aoi, never one to put something off, stepped around the side first and gazed at the landscape that had cradled them for their entire lives. She gasped and seemed to lose her balance as she reeled.
“It’s gone,” she wheezed.
Her words forced the rest of them to pour around the side of the cliff so they too could see what had happened. The image of the valley below hit each of them in turn like a stinging slap in the face.
Where they expected to see the stone walls and gate of the outpost and the accompanying village, nothing but a flat strip of rubble lay between the farmland and the forest beyond. The tower, the homes, all of it had been pulverized and ground to bits. Even parts of the forest had been demolished.
Knowing their town had been destroyed so thoroughly that not a single structure stood, it made them feel disconnected and lost. They became orphans in that moment, the identities they had built upon their family and community crumbling just like their town.
Vern, casting his bloodshot eyes away, looked down at Goober, who wore a glib look of excitement and a satisfied smile. Vern stepped forward to grab his shoulder and shake it off his face, but a rock came loose and the stones beneath them instantly tumbled down the hill. They rolled and slid down the mountainside amongst a pile of rocks.
The rockslide and the tumbling soldiers came to a halt, but none of them could seize the strength to get up. Roselyn started sobbing in her hands. Chucky’s face had taken such a pained expression that he looked like a corpse himself. The tears streamed down Aoi’s puffy red cheeks no matter how fervently she tried to control her breathing.
But as bad as knowing that their homes had been demolished was, the worst of it had yet to come. They still had to walk there, still had to find proof that their families were among the wreckage. Descending from the mountains and crossing the farmland, the source of their heartache became ever clearer.
Beginning to distinguish what they saw in front of them, they noticed something did stand among the wreckage. A single stake, driven into the ground, held a lifeless body a few yards in the air. Behind the figure, the rubble of the outpost lay so flat they could see a massive pit where the marketplace had imploded and sunk into chambers beneath. That underground space belonged to one man, the village elder, whose leaking body hid inside a hood and robes atop the stake.
“No, please no!” Roselyn wailed, recognizing her mentor, Corey. Falling onto her knees, she collapsed face first onto the dirt and screamed. Though everyone had looked up to Corey, none had known him better than Roselyn. From their training in the labyrinth beneath the outpost, to his last words to her that she would be able to make a difference, his loss seemed to rend her in two. She rolled and kicked as though she were on fire. Through all of it, only a few words were discernible.
“I’m sorry, Corey. Please forgive me, forgive me.”
Vern dropped next to her, holding her tight as her eyes rolled around inside her head.
“Listen to me, Roselyn! Listen! I’ve never met a kinder, more compassionate person than you, but you need to be strong now. We need you, and we’re here for you. This isn’t your fault! Let’s just keep breathing, and we’ll fight until it finally gives out.”
Mary, holding her head and sobbing, settled beside them. Will cried too, but he tried with all his might to hide it. Mira’s mouth hung open, she squinted, and a cold quiver rattled her.
Goober tottered toward the stake, where the body of Corey’s assistant, Natalie, had been tied. He dove into her lap and snuggled in. When he put his hands to her brown curls and face, making her smile, a fresh round of moans rippled through those present.
“Please leave her alone! That’s disgusting!” Mira admonished him, and the boy slowly twisted his neck around.
“Why? She was happy when she died. Happier than she’d ever been,” he chirped.
“Natalie told us how ashamed she felt about not being able to fight before we left,” Chucky blubbered. “Maybe he’s right. She finally got her chance.”
In the light of a never-ending day, time had lost all meaning. They sprawled on the ground, battered and broken as if beset by invisible demons.
“I just hate them,” Vern cried. “I just hate them all. There’s no reason for this at all.”
“Why’d it turn out this way? What were they punished for?” Chucky moaned.
“This is what the Warlord wanted,” Mira said. “He wants us to hurt as bad as they do. It’s not about logic or even revenge. It’s because causing misery is easier than letting go. Now we’re trapped alongside him with no choice but to fight back, because there are some things too important to forget about.”
“I just want to see my family,” Aoi sniffled, lurching in the direction of where her home used to be. As she started stepping over stones and wooden chunks, she screamed when Goober popped out from under the wreckage.
“There’s no one else here,” he said.
“That’s cuz they’re all…” Aoi replied to the child, unable to finish her sentence.
“No, there’s not a body in here,” he corrected.
The others heard him and felt compelled to verify what he said. After expecting to find bodies under every piece of debris they picked up, they didn’t find a single one.
“What happened? Did he burn them all? Disintegrate them?” Will asked.
A sudden noise rattled through the heaps of rubble. Something was approaching them, and they froze, unsure how to react. They’d only just begun to worry they had fallen into some kind of trap when a single, timid figure emerged from behind a collapsed heap.
Mert Bogger, looking beside himself for the agony he experienced, staggered forward. He looked dirty, dusty, and even older than he had before. Mira and the others came forward, wondering at his sorrow.
“All of them gone,” he stammered. “They killed Corey and Natalie then took the rest away. They came for me and I faked a heart attack. When they saw I wasn’t breathing, they just went right on by—idiots! But they marched the rest out farther west. Must be looping through the towns until they set upon Darmen.”
“Are my parents alive?” Mira asked, pleading in her heart for them.
“They were taken right along with everyone else, but after that I can’t say for su
re. When the army emerged from the mountains, there were so many of them. The fight was over as soon as it began. Corey came out to face the whole army himself. The rest cowered in the outpost, hearing sounds more terrible than anything you could ever imagine. But it was even more terrible when they stopped, and that’s when they came and took everyone away.”
As awful as things had seemed, knowing their families still clung to life proved a great relief. The loss of the town and the loss of Corey, especially for Roselyn, left a hole that could never be filled, but they could still cling to hope that the lives of those they loved might still be salvaged.
“Let’s cut him down and build a pyre in his honor. Even in death, Corey will strike one more blow against those who hurt us,” Mira said.
“How’s that?” Vern asked.
“From his ashes, we will have the last ingredient we need to make our weapon. His death will be the key to the Warlord’s undoing, and from it we will restore what has been broken and reclaim those we have lost,” Mira promised.
“You don’t have much time,” Mert urged. “There’s no telling when they’ll come thundering down Darmen’s doorstep.”
“Then let’s put our minds to work. If we can’t find rope, we’ll have to make it. We’ll need to find tools and knives. Once the pyre has burned, we’ll combine the charcoal with the sulfur and potassium nitrate to form explosive powder, but we’ll need to make shells to house it. Let’s make Corey Outpost rise again in such a colorful display that it inspires all those who hope for freedom and peace to rise up and fight for it!”
Mira’s demands set them all into action, and they started gathering the materials and following her directions. Busy hands and focused minds dampened the sting of their torn feelings, and it even felt good to make something that would directly punish the culprits.
The pyre set and Corey facing the bright sunny sky, Roselyn kneeled to light it. They all stood next to each other, holding hands, and silently paid their respects to a man they had long revered. Corey held the admiration of all those who knew him, and they felt in their hearts that without his wisdom and guidance they would not have grown to be themselves. The fire blazed, the pyre crumbled, and they once again got to work preparing for the fight ahead.
While Mira tended to her compounds and materials on a smooth wooden tabletop set on the ground, the others scavenged through the town’s wreckage for the things she needed. Making trips back and forth, they watched her work the minerals into a fine black powder. She fashioned pasteboard into foot-long tubes that would become shells. Combining a few other materials, they saw her cut a sheet of conglomerated metals into little pellets.
“What are those?” Chucky asked, bending over alongside her workspace.
“These are called pyrotechnic stars. They produce colored light depending on the elements present. Calcium burns orange, sodium burns yellow, and copper burns blue. I would’ve loved to make a violet one too, but we won’t have the raw potassium for that.”
Even though he had gotten a detailed response, Chucky still looked lost. He nodded absent-mindedly when Mira spoke to him again. This time, her eyes carried a dire quality they hadn’t before.
“I need you to find something special for me,” she said, swallowing.
“Sure, anything,” he promised.
“I need you to go to my house and look through the rubble. I kept something wrapped in the blankets in my room. It might have survived.”
“Is it some batteries or wire? I promise—” he said before she stopped him.
“No, it’s something more personal. For my birthday last year, my father gave me a snow globe. He said his mist would remain inside as long as he lived. I need you to find it. I need to know they are still alive.”
Chucky nodded emphatically and set off for the road leading to her home. As he left, Aoi came through one of the nearby forest paths that used to be marked by stones of different kinds and sizes, but they had all been reduced to pebbles. She nodded to Vern, who was feeding the fire, and signaled for him to come closer.
“The schoolhouses were all destroyed too. They’d been knocked over in one swoop. I kicked through the senior schoolhouse for a minute though, and I found something weird, Fortst’s coat. He never took the thing off, but it was just lying in there around a mop,” she described, bringing Mira to her feet.
“Knowing him, he would’ve taken on the whole army and gotten himself killed before he let them step foot inside this town,” Vern said, waving the others to come closer.
“He knows we know that,” Mira added. “It must be a signal. He couldn’t let himself be taken prisoner, and he couldn’t beat them all either. No, he’s out there somewhere. He’s waiting for the chance to strike back, just like we are.”
“I hope for his sake you’re right,” Vern sighed, catching sight of Will nearby.
Roselyn, Mary, and even Mert formulated their best guesses. It gnawed at them that they couldn’t know for sure if he lived or if his body just hadn’t been found. While they pondered his chances of survival, they had more reason than ever to consider their own.
“Can you imagine if all this had happened last year?” Aoi wondered.
“We would’ve still been in the academy. Just minding our own business and thinking about Trials and what we’d do after school in the marketplace,” Mary said, picking up where Aoi left off. Even as she spoke, the story of what would’ve happened flowed together so easily that they could all picture it.
“We would’ve been wiped out, no chance to fight or anything. Everything we hoped for, washed away. Or if we’d graduated a year earlier it would’ve just been a year of fighting in which we’d probably all get killed. But instead we’re here by blind luck,” Roselyn whispered, her voice hoarse from screaming.
“I remember meeting a girl at the Equinox Festival who said she was a senior and wanted to be class leader. I was so mean to her. If my stomping on her dream wasn’t bad enough, all this had to happen and now she’ll never know how it would’ve turned out,” Mira added.
“Everyone’s got something at stake in this,” Chucky said. “We need our families back, they need their futures back, and we’re the ones who have to find a way to make it happen.”
“There’s no time to lose,” Mert spoke up. “Just because they’re in one piece now doesn’t mean they will be for long.”
Vern nodded resolutely, but Will just glared at the handful of half-made rockets cluttering the tabletop.
“Maybe Fortst had the right idea,” Will claimed. “What are we really going to be able to accomplish with this? We’re never going to beat them, not even with the whole of Darmen helping us. We should just run away and never look back.”
“They have my father, Will. I have to help him,” Roselyn pleaded to no avail.
“They have my parents too,” Will shot back to the disagreeing glances from around the circle, “And they’ll tell me I was a fool to fight when it means I’ll just get myself killed or captured. Why are you in here with us, Will? I can hear them now!”
But he got nothing but cold stares.
“I’ll say it again. You don’t have to come,” Vern said, staring incredulously at his friend.
Will started to huff, and he shook his head.
“Well forgive me for trying to keep somebody safe! I’d love to be all noble and righteous, fight the good fight, and win, but I’ll tell you I don’t think it’s going to happen. Just because something seems like the right thing to do doesn’t mean it’s the smart thing to do, OK?”
On the verge of tears, Will pushed through the crowd and stormed off down the forest path to where the schoolhouse used to be. He had his shoulders hunched and his head brooding. Though she appeared shaken and frail, Roselyn ducked out of the group to go after him, but she only made it a few feet when she heard her name.
“Roselyn, please,” Mira called.
Just a demure nod and a steady, solemn look, convinced Roselyn to let Mira try her luck.
; Chasing Will down the trail, the sunlight through the trees brought Mira back to the year before. For all that happened to them, that light and how it shimmered in sheets to the forest floor remained. She knew it wouldn’t stay this way for long though. Because of the constant sun, the leaves would turn brown, it wouldn’t rain as much, and living things everywhere would start to die.
Coming to the end of the trail, she spotted Will standing over the demolished schoolhouse. The brittle and broken boards poked through the wreckage in odd directions. The roof stood partially on its side. Aoi had set Fortst’s coat on the top of the heap, and Will looked at it. Feeling bashful about interrupting his moment and yet worried about his state of mind, Mira approached him.
“Will—” she began, but he cut her off.
“Look, I know why you’re here. You want to snap your fingers and be the good leader now. Instead of telling me to suck it up and deal with it, you’re going to coddle me and pretend it’s nothing. I think you were right the first time, because I’ve seen too much, and it’s not nothing!”
But Mira kept her cool even as he disparaged her.
“Will, I know what you’re going through. I used to believe the only truth was the sharp sting of a cut, but it’s not. I shut myself away from everything and everyone I loved because I thought it would free me from the pain. But it only makes it worse. Tell me it doesn’t.”
“You don’t understand,” Will denied. “It’s not about shutting things out. It’s about leaving things behind. I’m different now than I was, different because I’ve done things I didn’t want to do. You’re all different too, but you’re faking and trying to pretend to be the same. This schoolhouse, this town, if you can’t leave them behind even when they’re obliterated then that’s your failing.”
“Someone did this to us!” Mira pleaded with him. “We can’t let him get away with it. There are some things in life that you have to fight for. This town and my family mean something to me that I can’t deny. They are too important, and it would be a disservice to them to let them go willingly. For this atrocity, there must be recourse.”